CF Industries, JERA announce joint development agreement

CF Industries and JERA , Japan’s largest energy company, announced that they have executed a joint development agreement, or JDA, to explore the development of greenfield low-carbon ammonia production capacity at CF Industries’ Blue Point Complex in Louisiana. The JDA will guide JERA and CF Industries’ evaluation of a joint venture agreement to build an approximately 1.4M metric ton capacity low-carbon ammonia plant. JERA is contemplating a 48% ownership stake in the project as well as an agreement to procure more than 500,000 metric tons of low-carbon ammonia annually to meet demand for low-carbon fuels in Japan. JERA and CF Industries previously had signed a memorandum of understanding to explore a potential joint project development and sales and purchase of low-carbon ammonia. JERA and CF Industries aim to reach a final investment decision on the proposed project within a year for commencing production in 2028. JERA intends to replace coal with low-carbon clean ammonia in its existing thermal coal power plants to reduce CO2 emissions. JERA is currently conducting the world’s first commercial-scale demonstration test of fuel ammonia substitution at its Hekinan Thermal Power Station.